Road Trip Day 2 – Whangarei to Russell

Starting Point: Whangarei
Ending Point: Russell
Number of Stops Along the Way:  6
Number of Kilometers Traveled: 222

We continued further North today. Started the morning off by hiking to Whangarei Falls. Then headed up the road to a farmer’s market, but it was too late and we missed it.

Then we headed North to Russell, missed our turn, and ended up 27 km too far up the road in KawaKawa, with no way to get to Russell except a dirt track. BUT, the world famous Hundertwasser Toilets are in KawaKawa, so we got to use those. They were designed by famed artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and are the first building designed by him in the southern hemisphere. Very eclectic and fun, and built with tiles donated by the students of the Bay of Islands.

After a short break for coffee and chai at the Trainspotter Cafe, we headed back down south to find the proper turn…but we picked wrong again and ended up down a lovely country road. After it turned to single track and then to dirt, we decided perhaps we’d made a wrong turn and doubled back to the 1 to try the next road down. Third time was a charm and we were finally headed the right way to Russell.

By this time it was lunchtime, so we stopped and had a wonderful picnic lunch at Helena Bay and then skipped along the coast from beach to beach, with beautiful forests and rolling pastureland in between.

We headed to Oakura Bay and called a few important people in the states while parked alongside the beach. Yay for mobile wifi hotspots. Then we stopped off at Bland’s Bay to watch the crazy tides, and played on a rope swing at Picnic Bay before making our final push into Russell.

We’re at the Russell Top Ten Holiday Park for the next two nights. Russell is a pretty little sea town, which reminds us of many of the small seaside New England towns we’ve visited. This evening we wandered down to the pier to watch the sunset and then stopped by the liquor store on the way home and picked up a bottle of Bulmer’s Original Cider. Quite tasty with biscuits while we are curled up on our little couch (i.e. the back seat of the Spaceship).

Tomorrow we will leave the Spaceship at the holiday park and take the passenger fairy across the Bay of Islands to Pahia and Waitanga for the day to do a bit of hiking and sightseeing.